Hamas is sitting tight until international pressure forces Israel to end its military operations in Gaza, a senior official for the terrorist group told AFP on Monday following meetings with Egyptian officials on the issue.
“Egypt, Qatar and Turkey are making great efforts to reach an agreement for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange,” said a senior Hamas official who was part of Sunday’s meeting in Cairo, referring to a possible exchange of hostages held in the Strip for Palestinian terrorists jailed in Israel.
“Our Palestinian people are waiting for American and international pressure on [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu to stop the war and reach an agreement, as happened in Lebanon,” he added.
A second Hamas official also present in Egypt told the news agency that the terrorist delegation met with “the head of the Egyptian General Intelligence, Major General Hassan Rashad, and a number of Egyptian intelligence officials, and discussed ways to stop the war and aggression, bring in aid and open the Rafah crossing” on Gaza’s border with Sinai.
Jerusalem believes that 97 of the 251 hostages taken during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist assault remain in Gaza after 423 days. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered Gaza in 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two Israeli soldiers killed during “Operation Protective Edge” in 2014.
The official figure includes 84 men, 13 women and two children under the age of five, among them 87 Israeli citizens and 10 foreign nationals—eight from Thailand, one from Nepal and one from Tanzania.
A total of 105 hostages were released in a November 2023 ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, with four having been returned before the deal. Eight hostages have been rescued alive by troops. The bodies of 37 have been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by Israeli forces.
On-and-off indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas to renew last year’s hostage release agreement have dragged on for months, with the United States, Egypt, Qatar and others acting as intermediaries.
Israeli National Missions Minister Orit Strook, a member of the Religious Zionism Party, told reporters on Monday that she would support an agreement similar to the November 2023 deal.
“If there is a deal that allows the continuation of the fighting in Gaza, the further dismantling of Hamas, which we have not yet eradicated in its civilian, governmental, and military forms, and the continued pursuit of the war’s objectives, we will certainly support it,” Strook said.
“I’m among those who believe in pursuing individual deals with the captors of the hostages,” the Israeli minister explained in an interview with the 103FM channel. “I’m against deals with Hamas as an entity.”
Netanyahu presented a proposal last month that would see the Israeli government pay several million dollars for the release of each hostage, in exchange for safe passage abroad for the captors and their families.
“We all very much want to see the hostages back with us,” Strook said in the interview with 103FM on Monday, adding, “Hamas’s situation is not what it used to be. The very framework for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Hezbollah’s willingness to distance itself from Hamas and focus on its own survival, just before it loses control [in Lebanon], leaves Hamas more isolated.”
